Squalane makes up about 12% of our skin’s sebum, so our skin identifies it as “ours” and soaks it up quickly. It’s a vital part of cholesterol, steroid, and Vitamin D synthesis in our bodies. It penetrates the skin quickly offering softening and moisturizing to even really chapped or cracked skin. You can use it neat or in a lotion. But it’s highly unstable with all those double bonds. So instead we use squalane, a hydrogenated version with no double bonds that offers us a lot of stability, such as a shelf life of over 2 years!
Squalane has the same great qualities we find in squalene. It can help chapped and cracked skin (in fact, try it neat!), helps prevent UV damage to skin, offers cell regenerating properties, and can be anti-bacterial. (Remember, though, you can’t make claims about the UV protection or anti-bacterial properties.)